Monthly Archive for November, 2005
Thursday was Thanksgiving in America… but not here. Although, when I made a quick run to the store for a big mixing bowl, you’d think it was a holiday with how many cops I saw driving along the way.
Anyway, a few weeks before we had talked about having a kind of “international” day for those of us on staff who aren’t Latvian. But we kinda forgot to organize anything. A few days before Thanksgiving, though, our Latvian director called us up & invited us to his house for dinner on Thanksgiving. We accepted & offered to bring some food dishes along. My honey makes a wonderful pan-baked stuffing.
Somehow, our director found a couple of turkeys in this country. They weren’t very big, maybe about 9 lbs. each. And after we cooked them, we realized how different they are from American turkeys. They tasted alright, but the meat was really tough… not my favorite.
Anyway, the guest list included my wife & me, a young American girl, a young Latvian guy who’d grown in up in the US (so he counted as an American), a young Aussie girl (who was along just for the fun of it), another American lady & our hosts, all Latvian, yet who speak English almost like Americans. We had a great time with food & molled wine & just generally enjoying each other’s company, as we cracked jokes about life & each other.
We had turkey, mashed potatoes & gravy, stuffing, various fresh veggies with dip, and an ironic can of jellied cranberries from the US. See, it turns out that before we ever moved here, my wife sent one lady a care package, which included the Thanksgiving-day-obligatory can of jellied cranberries; the kind that makes that sucking, sliding sound when poured out & then has to be sliced. My wife commented that she had no idea that by sending that package she’d be investing into her own future! 
The whole evening was an unexpected blessing, for which I’m very thankful.
~t
This evening my wife & I joined some of our Latvian friends downtown Talsi at the lake to watch some celebratory fireworks. It was Latvia’s independence day today, Nov. 18th. The air was cold & damp. Tiny flecks of white floated down from the misty, moonlit sky. Hundreds of people filled the streets with coats, hats, gloves, scarves & boots adorned.
We passed by the town hall where along the steps in the snow were lit dozens of small rememberance candles; people waiting for friends to join them for the show.
8pm, zero hour for shoot-off was marked by the tolling of the bell at the Lutheran church on the hill. Then the street lights went out all over town. As the fireworks display began, I realized that this wasn’t the most spectacular show I have or will ever see, but I could feel that it was special. For this little town of maybe 12,000, this was a big show. The hillside around the lake ooh-ed as the largest rockets began to explode with force overhead.
The whole thing felt oddly familiar. I knew that it was an independence day to be celebrated, but for me, that has always been equated with America. However, the cold & the snow were constant markers for me that I was definitely not in America & this definitely was not July. No, I was in Latvia, a former Soviet state, in November just a couple of days after the first snow of the winter… which will prove to certainly not be the last.
I’m glad that we went. We reflected on this as we walked back to our car through the dark park. It wasn’t a long experience, but it was an important one.
~t
My very own painting!
Had a bit of fun making this at ArtPad.
This was a car that was plentiful when I was in the Czech Republic. I just thought I should include it here:
Check out www.dacia.ro
It’s a Romanian-made car… but I didn’t see that one pictured… I saw this one:
Picture courtesy of http://www.geocities.com/motorcity/downs/4582/dacia.htm
~t
It’s important to keep alive your heritage… well, maybe it’s not my personal heritage, but I can claim it as an American!!
http://www.cowboyculturalsociety.com/
~t
Another great Soviet specialty… the IZ. That’s right. The IZ. Has a 2-stroke, 16 hp engine (motorcycle engine, that is) & if you’re lucky to get a nice wind behind you & a downhill slope you just might reach 60 km/h. I kid you not… this car is the size of my couch! But one cool thing I learned about the IZ iz that it’z totally hand-controlled. The throttle, clutch & brakes are all at the steering wheel for the physically handicapped. Yes, folks, the Soviets actually cared about that. Go figure.
Imagine… bringin’ home the taters in that dream machine!
~t
